October, 2012 archive
The End of Science 1
Robert A. Brown laments our creeping creepy scientific illiteracy:
When over half congress doesn’t believe in Evolution (from a Pew survey), intelligent discussion on: genetic heritage, Genome research, definition of life, global warming, economic theories, and much more is simply not possible. Democracy fails.
When nearly half of college students in the US South and bible-belt Midwest are not sure that the earth revolves around the sun (Natl. Science Found. study), they can’t be sure that the globe is warming.
Twits on Twitter 0
Twitter and the Beeb.
Victoria Coren Has a Mad 2
I am an avid Sherlockian. I have three different versions of the Canon, including William S. Baring-Gould’s monumental Annotated, as well as two biographies of Holmes, the Encyclopedia Sherlockiana, and several dozen pastiches, parodies, and what today are called “re-imaginings.”
I was mildly surprised Victoria Coren doesn’t like the idea of Lucy Liu as Watson in the Sherlock Holmes pastiche, Elementary. Indeed, she was able to dislike it without having seen it:
Personally, I’d like to press Liu’s face into a bowl of cold pea soup for that statement. It’s not just her failure to distinguish between creating a new character and mangling a beloved old one (Tread softly! You tread on my dreams!), but the triumphant tone over such an appalling and offensive racial change. Let me be clear: I rather like the idea of an Asian Watson, but American? God save us all.
Coren shows an uncharacteristic insularity (well, she does live on an island) that ignores the long history of Sherlock Holmes parodies, imitators, spin-offs, and rebirths, from Solar Pons to Naked is the Best Disguise. Indeed, somewhere along the line I read a story that posited Sherlock Holmes in a partnership with Teddy Roosevelt.
One suspects her ideal Watson to be the insufferable dunderhead portrayed by Nigel Bruce in the movies and on radio–the Watson of large walrus moustache and small IQ. (You can find many of the Nigel Bruce-Basil Rathbone radio shows at various OTR sites and the Internet Archive–see the OTR section on the sidebar.)*
Elementary is quite a skillful “re-imagining” of Holmes and Watson, fast-paced and, by the absurdly low standards of American television mysteries, well-plotted. It uses fewer plot gimmicks to get from body to arrest than popular shows such as CSI, NCIS, and Bones, which purport to use science and technology to track down clues but which, actually, use some kind of fictional science in which month-long lab tests are completed during the commercial break and in which agencies have resources that no actual government agency has, except perhaps the NSA (for example, what investigative agency would devote a team of four highly-skilled scientists and two FBI agents to investigate the death of a print-shop clerk, even it the remains were found in a post office? It was quite good fun to watch, but, really, give me a freaking break!).
I suspect that, if Sherlock Holmes were contacted in Sussex, where he has been quietly keeping bees and investigating methods of segregation of the queen since his retirement, he would suggest that Victoria Coren could benefit from cultivating her sense of playfulness, which seems somewhat underdeveloped.
Updated 2012-10-15: Edited for clarity.
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*The best portrayal of Holmes and Watson, the one truest to the spirit and characters of the Canon, was the one in the Jeremy Brett series, in which Watson, much like Lucy Liu’s Watson, was no bumbling idiot, but rather an intelligent person who just cannot keep up with Holmes–a Mustang to Holmes’s Lamborghini.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Demonstrate politeness to your young:
A team from the East End and one from Wilkinsburg were getting ready to play when shots were fired in the grandstand at 10:08 a.m.
Talibans across the Sea 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., comments on the Taliban’s attack on a 14-year old school girl for the crime of wanting to be included in society, and sees parallels:
Granted, the outspoken child in this country is not in particular danger of physical violence from religious or ideological zealots. But the abortion doctor is. The gay couple are. The Muslim American is.
Fundamentalism is fundamentalism wherever it breeds, always the same dark stain of unbending literalism, always the same shrill claim that it guards the one true path to enlightenment, always the same crazed insistence that the one unforgivable crime against faith, the one inexcusable heresy of ideology, is to ask questions.
The War on Knowledge–It’s a Republican Thing 0
In my local rag, Daryl Lease offers you a chance to guess what response House Republicans have given to various statements about scientific topics. Here’s a sample:
During a discussion of global warming, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher mused:
A) “You know, some of this heat could be from the pit of hell.”
B) “If we do something about warming, are we imposing an unfair regulatory burden on suntan lotion companies?”
C) “We don’t know what those other [warming] cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?”
Follow the link for the answer and for the rest of the quiz.
Remember, if God didn’t believe in evolution, he wouldn’t have given us Carbon-14 dating.
“Convenient Mitt” (Updated) 0
One who believes in nothing will say anything.
From the New York Times:
There’s no there, there.
Just a used car salesman determined to make a sale. If it means putting sawdust in the transmission and oatmeal in the radiator, well, then the trees and the oats better run.
Addendum, Later that Same Day:
PoliticalProf has a picture.
QOTD 0
Eddie Bernice Johnson:
All issues are women’s issues – and there are several that are just women’s business.
The Hollow Man 0
When you believe in nothing, you can say anything.
Vial People 0
Fungus has been found in at least 50 vials of an injectable steroid medication made at a specialty compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts, investigators said. Health authorities haven’t yet said how they think the medication was contaminated, but they have ruled out other suspects – other products used in administering the shots – and the focus continues to be on that pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center.
No doubt reducing those nasty guvmint regulations that hamstring industry will prevent this from happening in the future.
Also, pigs, wings.
In related news, the Diane Rehm show recently explored the meningitis outbreak. You can listen or read a transcript at the link.
Zumba Popularity Scores 0
Now I get it.
Searches of Wright’s studio and office turned up video recordings of sexual acts, billing information and meticulous records about clients, according to court documents.
The cops are ISO the johns.
Free weights and a bicycle are much safer.
The Myth of the Superstar CEO 0
Chris O’Brien, at the San Jose Mercury-News, explores a new study that explains that it is, indeed, a myth. A nugget (emphasis added):
Elson explained that too many boards have come to see CEOs like superstar athletes. A great hitter for one team should be a great hitter for another team if they are traded or move through free agency.
Likewise, if you’re a great CEO for company A, you’ll also be a great CEO at company B, even if they’re in completely different markets or industries.
Leadership is leadership is leadership. But Elson and Ferrere say, in fact, that specialized knowledge is absolutely essential.
In fact, the myth of the superstar CEO actually assumes that, if you are a great hitter for a one team, you are ipso facto destined to be a great point guard for another and a fantastic quarterback for a third.
Not Merely Crazy (Updated) 0
Also dangerous.
Police say someone fired a shot at an Obama campaign field office in Denver on Friday afternoon.
No one was injured, though people were inside the offices when the incident occurred, said Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez.
Luther was subjected to the Diet of Worms, which served death in the Wars of the Reformation.
The Republican Party has subjected its followers to a diet of lies, and it’s starting to yield its fruit.
And, when someone dies, the lies and lying liars will be in no way responsible. It will be the deed of a “lone actor” who for some reason “no one can understand” somehow “got carried away.”
These are not nice people.
Denver Post link via Balloon Juice.
Addendum, the Next Day:
StevenD has questions:
That Old Time Religion 0
In case you’re wondering what’s wrong with Biblical literalism . . . .
A DeKalb County father says the Bible made him do it.
Benjamin Edetanlen was sentenced to 18 years in prison Wednesday for beating his 5-month-old son to death.
Edetanlen’s defense is that he adhered to Proverbs: 13, which taught him “Spare the rod. Spoil the child.” But prosecutors said he went too far and his discipline killed his 5-month-old child in his home in 2004.
Lies and Lying Liars 0
Mark Hamill is not happy with Mitt’s flips.
“I debated in high school. If you told things that weren’t true or just made things out of whole cloth, you were penalized. It’s too bad they don’t apply the same standards to presidential candidates as they do to high school students,” he told Current TV host Cenk Ugyur.